Peachy..or maybe Nectariny!?

Posted on August 5, 2018

Now is the time you can get wonderful stone fruit at farmers markets and roadside stalls. Most eat them out of hand but they also make sweet and a colorful salad. The challenge with using peaches, plums and nectarines in a salad is removing the pits without destroying the fruit.

There are two kinds of pits you might encounter--a hard stone pit and a cling pit that is stubborn and tricky to work around. The stone pit is easy-- gently run the knife around the equator of the fruit and give the halves a twist in opposite directions. One half will come away cleanly. You remove the pit from the remaining half with a melon baller or grapefruit spoon. The cling pit is trickier. I have found that the best way is to take a thin knife and cut a diamond pattern around the pit from the top to the bottom and then to gently run knife around the north south axis and pry the halves apart. Once you have removed the pits cut the fruit in to wedges.

You can arrange these wedges on a plate and grate a little nutmeg on them or mix them in this tasty stone fruit salad.

Stone Fruit Salad

Serves 4

1qt. pitted and wedged stone fruit

2T Rice Wine vinegar

2T honey or agave nectar

2T chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Toss all ingredients thoroughly in a mixing bowl. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro and serve.